Ka'roz the Locust's Hurl Amber ability will now form a pool of Caustic Amber at the target's feet 3 seconds after targeting them. The timing was less predictable previously and varied based on the targeted player's distance from Ka'roz.

[Requires a realm restart.] Effects transforming a player's appearance should no longer prevent them from being able to interact with a defeated Paragon.

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Warlords of Draenor Story
We are invested (emotionally and otherwise) in all of the above. It's about the various stories that we want to tell (and make the most sense) and the gameplay that goes with it. One thing I've come to know over the years is that no matter which side you're on, if you disagree with the story or don't connect with it, there's a strange assertion that the developers just didn't care enough (or as inferred in the original post care too much). This assertion is not true. It's all perspective and personal opinion.

That said, we do pay attention to the concerns people have and do try to be sensitive to those concerns and address them when we can.

Then why yet another major Orc story arc? There are other races in this game.
You're assuming a lot and understandably so. I mean, if you look at the image, it's a bunch of orcs, right? But the story has never been just about the orcs and Warlords also will be highlighting a bit more about the draenei and even shedding a bit more light on blood elf paladins. The thing is, as always, it's a story about Azeroth and the heroes and villains that live (and die even) as a part of its ongoing history.

For the question about the Alliance and "Captain America", keep in mind, the Alliance are going THROUGH the portal to take it to the Iron Horde directly. They're not planning to sit it out and wait until things get too bad first. Since I don't write or develop the story, I can't comment on the difficulty of developing the Alliance story directly. As a writer myself though, I think that writing any story is about really feeling connected to it and taking it where you want it to go. So, good or evil doesn't affect the difficulty in writing it necessarily. It's about making it work in the right context that is consistent to the personalities of those characters. It's putting yourself in the "What would Jaina do if?" etc. mindset.

And why just Blood Elf paladins? Humans are the original Paladins and how much attention do Alliance Paladins get? Argents have got more Paladin attention than the Alliance ones. What happened to the Alliance Silver Hand? Why do we not have Paladin military leaders like we used to such as Uther, Tirion, and Turalyon?
Because there is a lot of information out there already about how the Light works for other paladins. Blood Elf paladins have a different relationship (if you will) that still needs to be explored.

I'm still seeing a lot of supposition about what the developers do and don't do. I'm not going to be able to convince you otherwise, but I can assure you, they aren't developing in a myopic story bubble. Again though, I understand that the opinions people have are subjective and respect where those suppositions and opinions are coming from.

Everyone has a favorite story they want told. We can't do them all at once, but we'll get to as many as we can and have no plans to slow down. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Reaper of Souls™ Unleashed on March 25, 2014
It looks like the Digital Deluxe edition of Reaper of Souls will also include 3 Hearthstone booster packs, but this isn't mentioned in the blog post.

Whether you plan to immediately don the armor of the new Crusader character or take your current hero directly into Act V, Reaper of Souls will bring you updated loot rewards, all-new class skills and abilities, game-changing features like the Mystic and Adventure Mode, and highly replayable content in the form of Bounties and Nephalem Rifts.

You also have the option to prepurchase the Digital Deluxe Edition, which contains a wealth of in-game goodies: a collection of exclusive helm- and weapon-transmogrification recipes to distinguish your hero among the champions of Sanctuary; a loyal Spectral Hound minion to keep your adventurers company on their epic journeys; three additional character slots to accommodate new heroes; an in-game Treasure Goblin companion pet for World of Warcraft; and an assortment of Crusader-themed Battle.net portraits and Malthael-themed decals for StarCraft II.

Here, have a look for yourself:

Players who prepurchase the Digital Deluxe Edition will receive their in-game items with the launch of the expansion on March 25, though some items may arrive beforehand, so keep an eye out for early deliveries.

If you're looking for even more loot, the Reaper of Souls retail-exclusive Collector's Edition comes fully equipped with all the in-game goodies from the Digital Deluxe, plus a range of premium collectible items:

Malthael mouse pad, bearing the impenetrable visage of the Angel of Death

Behind-the-scenes Blu-Ray/DVD two-disc set, featuring in-depth interviews with the development team and members of the Diablo III community

The Standard Edition is available for $39.99 USD and the Digital Deluxe Edition is available for $59.99 USD. If you choose to preorder the Standard Edition and later want to upgrade to the Digital Deluxe Edition, you'll be able to do so for $20. The Collector’s Edition is available only at select retail locations for a suggested retail price of $79.99. A limited number of Collector's Editions will be available and they're expected to sell out quickly, so be sure to lock in your preorder with your local retailer as soon as possible.

*When you prepurchase Diablo III: Reaper of Souls digitally via Battle.net, you will be able to download an encrypted version of the game client prior to the launch date. The expansion content will be unlocked and available for play on March 25, 2014.

Hearthstone Open Beta Update

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

We hope you’ve been having fun testing out the latest beta patch for Hearthstone—this update brought with it a bunch of bug fixes, some card changes, and the new Ranked Play system. Some of these updates were significant code changes, so we expect that some things will break, and we will also need your help to identify what’s still in need of fine-tuning. One other thing to mention is that we’ve been making great progress on improving server stability, but there are still a few things that have come up that we want to fix before we leave the closed beta phase.

With all of that said, we believe the right thing to do for the game is to not rush it out into open beta, but to instead hold onto it a little longer to make sure it’s ready for wider testing. At BlizzCon, we mentioned that we hoped to get the game into a state where it’s ready for open beta this month, but we’re just not quite there yet. The development team has been working hard to get this out before the end of the year, but our highest priority is that Hearthstone has an awesome launch when all gates are lifted and everyone can download it and play at the same time.

We’re close to the open beta—very close. And to enter this final part of our beta phase, we need your help. Keep trying out new decks, reporting bugs, and giving your feedback on our forums. That’s the best way you can help the team get Hearthstone into everyone’s hands as soon as possible.

We have some other news to share too. As of today, we have sent beta invites to everyone who opted in to the Hearthstone closed beta test prior to Monday, December 16. If you opted in before that date and have not yet received an invite email, check your spam folders or different email tabs to see if you invite may have ended up in an unexpected location. If you still can’t find your Hearthstone beta invite, don’t worry! We’re putting together a list of all Battle.net accounts that opted in to the Hearthstone beta test and did not claim their beta key. These accounts will be flagged for beta access within the first few weeks of January.

Opt-ins for the closed beta test will end on January 7; we plan to invite everyone who opts in by that date to the closed beta test at some point before the open beta begins. So keep playing, testing, and amassing your Hearthstone collection, as we do not plan on performing another card data wipe.

Thanks for your patience and enthusiasm. Hearthstone would not be as far along as it is without your helpful feedback. Please continue to let us know what you like and what you think needs a little more work.

And if you haven’t opted in to the Hearthstone closed beta test, you can do so here.

Oi

Originally Posted by Cronnix

$40 for a digital one act "expansion" to a mutiplayer game seems a bit ridiculous..

No one ever said you had to buy it, so don't qq and let other people enjoy the read. If you don't want it... Fine don't get it. Don't complain it's not your problem if you think about it truly now is it? Let it go man, First World Problems.... Americans/Canandians need to learn from my generations pot heads and hacky-sackers. Just chill out.

If you use gmail also be sure to the the promotions tab, I received a beta invite in October but didn't find it until late November thanks to the stupid tabs that don't notify you on your phone you have an email.

2 classes, 1 act that was as large as the 4 acts before it. it was a bit more, plus d2 somehow got an inherent higher replay value, though it was only grind.

an entirely new class

i love the paladin, uuuhm crusader class making it into d3 again. but its not that "new". its something that was expected to be in the first release, got oficially DENIED to ever make it into d3 world "because it doesnt fit the storyline", and YET makes it into d3 to attract new players with "same old, same old". the different playmodes should have been in the first release too, cause d3 was really a game that had/has NO REPLAY VALUE at all (mostly because you cant get loot yourself, which is fixed via addon now, but should have been like that at release)

this addon mainly is a major major BUGFIX (loot, classes, balance), that is sold out seperately, after a "beta-to-buy".